eur so ill, and your grandmamma was very
glad to have the cottage free, and me here to do for them. No doubt she
would have told you about it. I'm glad for your sake they are here.
They'll be nice company for you.'

Her words brought home to me the actual state of things.

'Do you think grandmamma will let me stay here a little?' I said. 'I'm
afraid she will not--and even if _she_ would, Cousin Cosmo will be so
angry, _he_'ll prevent it. I am quite sure they will send me to
school.'

'But what was the use of you coming here then, Miss Helena,' said Kezia,
sensibly, 'if you knew you would be sent to school after all?'

'Oh,' I said,'I didn't think very much about anything except getting
away. I--I thought grandmamma would just be glad to be rid of the
trouble of me, and that they'd leave me here till Mrs. Vandeleur was
better and grandmamma could come home again.'

Kezia did not answer at once. Then she said--

'Do you dislike London so very much, then, Miss Helena?'

'Oh no,' I replied. 'I was very happy alone with grandmamma, except for
always thinking they were coming, and fancying she didn't--that she was
beginning not to care for me. But--I _am_ sorry now, Kezia, for not
having trusted her.'

'That's right, my dear; and you'll show it by giving in cheerfully to
whatever your dear grandmamma thinks best for you?'

I was still crying--but quite quietly.

'I'll--I'll try,' I whispered.

When I was dressed I went downstairs, not sorry to feel I should find
the boys there. And in spite of the fears as to the future that were
hanging over me I managed to spend a happy day with them. They did
everything they could to cheer me up, and the more I saw of Harry the
more I began to realise how very, very much brighter a life mine had
been than his--how ungrateful I had been and how selfish. It was worse
for him than for Lindsay, who was quite a child, and who looked to Harry
for everything. And yet Harry made no complaints--he only said once or
twice, when we were talking about grandmamma, that he did wish she was
_their_ grandmother, too.

'Wasn't that old lady you lived with before like a grandmother?' I
asked.

Harry shook his head.

'We scarcely ever saw her,' he said. 'She was very old and ill, and even
when we did go to her for the holidays we only saw her to say
good-morning and good-night. On the whole we were glad to stay on at
school.'

Poor fellows--they had indeed been orphans.

We wandered abo